Master horticulturist Ali'i Chang grows 45 varieties of lavender, plus hydrangeas, olives and proteas, at the farm he founded in Kula, Maui.

Master horticulturist Ali'i Chang grows 45 varieties of lavender, plus hydrangeas, olives and proteas, at the farm he founded in Kula, Maui.

Photo: Courtesy Ali'i Kula Lavender

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The rugged coast near Hana, Maui, is the scene of a dramatic flash flood in Kathleen Tyau's "Makai."

The rugged coast near Hana, Maui, is the scene of a dramatic flash flood in Kathleen Tyau's "Makai."

Photo: Tor Johnson, Hawaii Tourism Authority

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Maui: Thesun sets on Maui's Kama'ole Beach -- actually three beach parks in Kihei, all good for families with young children.

Maui: Thesun sets on Maui's Kama'ole Beach -- actually three beach parks in Kihei, all good for families with young children.

Photo: Ron Dahlquist

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Maui: Plenty of ways to feel like a local on Market Street - especially Fridays

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In Hawaii they have a local word for "local" - kamaaina. When I want to feel like a kamaaina on Maui, I tear myself away from the beach and head inland, to the handsome old-Hawaii town of Wailuku. With its faded wooden storefronts and mom-and-pop noodle houses - not to mention its dearth of Sunglass Huts, ABC Stores, Crazy Shirts outlets and Bubba Gump Shrimp Cos. - it's a throwback to the days when sugarcane, not tourism, was king here.

Squatting in the broad plain separating the green, corrugated West Maui Mountains from the hulking volcano Haleakala, Wailuku, the island's administrative center, typically gets little more than a drive-by glance from visitors steering their rental cars toward the nearby Iao Valley. And that glance takes in only modern government buildings and fast-food outlets.

But the old center of town, Market Street, has quietly been undergoing gentrification, and is now chockablock with family-run shops and hole-in-the-wall restaurants aimed not at tourists but at kamaainas - and priced accordingly. At Green Ti Boutique, you can enjoy a lomi lomi massage for well under half of what you'd pay at a resort spa in Wailea or Kaanapali. A Saigon Cafe - a beloved noodle house a couple of blocks from Market Street, is such a locals' hangout that it posts no sign outside. But a friend picking up takeout spotted Clint Eastwood there recently.

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The time to be in Wailuku, if you can arrange it, is on the first Friday evening of each month, when Market Street is shut down for an old-fashioned street party, with everything from slack-key guitar concerts to taro-pounding competitions to something called an "Aloha poetry slam" to free movies at the Iao Theater, where "From Here to Eternity" premiered. Strolling the street, with a lilikoi shave ice in hand, you'll feel like an honorary kamaaina.